Design Opinions / Help

So, I'm planning to build a basement studio when I've got the money. My basement is, for the most part, rectangular, but the area that I plan to build the studio is under the master bedroom, which forks out by about ten feet, and has a width of eleven feet. I plan to build the studio there, with roughly half of the studio extending into the non-enclosed area of the basement. That said, because it's to be built in an area constrained by pre-existing structure, width (11 feet) is non-negotiable. My budget for this project is $5000-$10000 for construction. I do not do much recording, so it's a waste to build a live room that will only get used a few times a year, so the plan only includes a control room. The large rectangle containing the entire image represents my space limitations - 20' x 11'. Another consideration is that, this, being a basement, has low ceilings. 7'6" to the bottom of the beams, 6'9" to the bottom of the air duct that runs along the left side of where I plan to build. I'm also debating whether I should go for this design, or simply use the entire space for a rectangular room, with more acoustic treatment. Though only one door is pictured, I will likely have a dual-door setup, one opening out, one in. An issue with this room is that since there are no right-angle corners, triangular bass traps won't fit properly, but I assume that can be offset by using a few more 4" thick rectangular panels. As has been stated, the basement is unfinished. There's the exterior concrete of the basement walls, the insulation, and then nothing. Ceiling is completely exposed.

I'm not good with drawings, but I have some suggestions. First, I'd rotate the setup 90degrees, one way or the other. You want the speakers firing into the long part of the room. Ideally, place the listening/mix position 38% back from the front wall. A room that size would be good for a one-room studio; if you record there is plenty of space behind you to set up the musicians. It'd be cramped but you could fit a band there. Are you planning on soffit-mounting the speakers, or will they be freestanding/on stands? If you haven't already, read around this forum. Buy Rod's book. Construction-wise, how important is isolation to you? If you need isolation, I'd consider John's inside-out wall design for the inner walls (you'll need to build double walls for good isolation) so you can incorporate acoustic treatment directly into the wall. You can use this design for the ceiling as well, though you'll have fairly low ceilings.... When I was designing a one-room studio for my garage, Kendale did a nice drawing for me on my thread. Check it out, it's a very similar size to what you have to work with.

jwl wrote:

I'm not good with drawings, but I have some suggestions. First, I'd rotate the setup 90degrees, one way or the other. You want the speakers firing into the long part of the room. Ideally, place the listening/mix position 38% back from the front wall. A room that size would be good for a one-room studio; if you record there is plenty of space behind you to set up the musicians. It'd be cramped but you could fit a band there. Are you planning on soffit-mounting the speakers, or will they be freestanding/on stands? If you haven't already, read around this forum. Buy Rod's book. Construction-wise, how important is isolation to you? If you need isolation, I'd consider John's inside-out wall design for the inner walls (you'll need to build double walls for good isolation) so you can incorporate acoustic treatment directly into the wall. You can use this design for the ceiling as well, though you'll have fairly low ceilings.... When I was designing a one-room studio for my garage, Kendale did a nice drawing for me on my thread. Check it out, it's a very similar size to what you have to work with.

Well, initially I was going to build in another section of the basement. The room would have been about 15' x 13', longer than wide, and the speakers would be firing along the longer dimension. Unfortunately, I neglected to notice a big bloody support beam about 9' x 9' out from the corner which put a quick stop to those plans. Initially, I just rotated the design into the new area, but a problem came up: The desk was too wide, there were only a few inches on either side to squeeze by to reach the subwoofer / open area up front. I'll be mounting the speakers on stands, as I can't maintain a proper listening angle/triangle with them on the desk. I've been doing some reading around the forum, but it's kind of an information overload. Isolation is very important, as directly above the studio's spot is my bedroom, which leaks sound out of its massive windows, to the neighbour's house, whose kids often leave their windows open at night. (Boy, was that a run on sentence.) Coincidentally, as it's in a basement, the only real way sound escapes is by going up. I'm going to be using the densest materials I can get for the ceiling, as it's already quite low, (7'6" for most, 6'9" in the bottom 2 feet or so of the drawing.) And I took a look at that drawing just now - I assume the unit at the back is what will be used to prevent noise from exiting via the garage door? If so, any idea what your costs will be, not including it?

can you provide a detailed drawing of the raw basement including measurements esp for the beam and other things that might restrict the layout? just a simple line drawing works.

First off: I have been told by several people that the first design posted isn't ideal, for a number of reasons, so I've ditched it and will be building a rectangular room, and spending more money on acoustic treatments. Unfortunately, it's extremely hard to get proper measurements in that section right now, as it's junked up with two mattresses, parts to a bunk bed, a few bikes, among other things. It's completely impossible to walk through, lay the tape down and take a measurement, for either width or length. However, I did get the following (precise) measurements: Distance from the end of one joist to the start of another is 17 1/2 inches Each joist is 1 1/2 inches wide. To reiterate: Bottom of the joists is 90 inches, and, a slight correction: Duct begins at 6'8", not 6'9". The air duct I mentioned in my first post actually runs along the bottom wall of the diagram. The duct is situated 16.5 inches from the beam, and the duct extends a further 18.5 inches from that point. As I have said, I am building into an area of my house that "forks" out, resulting in the basement being rectangular, with an outcrop. The small diagram illustrates what I mean, with the red line representing the beam, and the blue the furnace/ducts. The little fork in the ducting represents a pre-installed air vent in the basement, that will likely be moved, so air enters the studio from the bottom of a wall rather than the ceiling. Note: The diagram isn't in any way to scale, it's just to illustrate what I'm talking about. The left wall of the first diagram is the top of this one. As is indicated by the diagram, the edges of the existing concrete are diagonal, not squared. This poses a problem for bass trap positioning, so I may end up sealing that area off and offsetting the room by a few feet so it can have square corners. Now, I did take accurate measurements of my bedroom - Which has the exact same width as the basement section, except for the fact that the bedroom has walls, while the basement only has insulation. Width: 131.5 End Wall Width: 74.5 End Wall Diagonal Pieces: 41.5 Inches each Not sure how much help knowing the finished dimensions of the bedroom are, but they can serve as a guideline.

Update: I had a friend over today, we took the measurements. The total width of the area is 140 inches. (11' 8") The pre-built left wall is 10' 2". Distance to support beam is 20'. I've attached a Sketchup file of the basement section. Edit: I've also got a Sketchup file of what I plan to do with the area - It needs to be modified slightly to reflect sizing limitations, but it's close to the final design. It's also, unfortunately a bit large so it can't be uploaded here. It's located here.

here's my idea on the space... add another soffit opposite the existing one to balance the ceiling. either add HVAC or use it for bass trapping. use the entire rear alcove for bass trapping.

Interesting. Any idea how much the slot-walls / bass trap / acoustic rear walls would cost?

its all 2x4, 3pcf rigid insulation, flame retardent acoustic friendly cloth, 1" MDF in strips, stain and paint... shouldn't be too much in materials cost (depending on suppliers esp the insulation), but time and labor.